This is something I stumbled upon last fall while trying to find an easier way to go through a ton of Anki reviews in a short period of time. I mentioned it on the Reviewing the Kanji forums somewhere, but I never posted it here. Well, here it is for posterity’s sake.

Problem: Using the keyboard to do Anki reviews is too much work, even for someone as lazy as you. Reviews are piling up. What will you do? What will you do?!?

OMG LAZY!

Solution: If you have a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2, you can use the Logitech Profiler to create a Game Profile for Anki. Just map keyboard shortcuts to the buttons on the controller that you want to use. I assigned the space bar to the shoulder buttons, then the number keys 1, 2, 3 and 4 to the numbered buttons 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. I also assigned the sync function ctrl-shift-y to the 9 and 10 buttons, to make syncing easy.

Now you just have to activate the Profiler when you run Anki, and you can slouch back and review in that half-catatonic gamer state you so dearly love, with barely a muscle moving.

Feeding tubes and adult diapers are optional.

It’s Not Perfect, But What Is?

There are a couple of downsides I have noticed: for some reason, the Logitech Profiler is kind of annoying, in that I have problems running other games with the controller. It wants to force the Anki profile remaps to all of the other games, so I only use this controller with my laptop, on which I don’t do much gaming.

Also, whenever I adjust the volume or screen brightness of my laptop, I have to switch to the Profiler screen, then back to Anki to “re-engage” the controller again. For some reason, the controller stops working in Anki whenever I fiddle with those buttons. It’s probably some sort of driver issue, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

In general, I find this interface to be the fastest and easiest way to do Anki reviews. It works even better when you hook up the HDMI-out from the laptop to your HDTV.

For a dictionary, there are a couple of options. My preference is DroidWing. It works great with EPWING dictionaries (just create an EPWING directory on your SDCard) and with web searches, if you know what search strings to use. You can search multiple dictionaries all at once, which is powerful.:

Vertical Text Viewer is great for reading 青空文庫 (aozora bunko) formatted books. 青空文庫 is the Japanese version of Project Gutenberg, only the difference here is that the format they use has become an “underground” standard of a sort. You can even buy books, have them sent to a professional to be scanned professionally, and then format them yourself in 青空文庫 format. (The books get destroyed in the process, though.) Of all of the 青空文庫 readers out there, I like Vertical Text Viewer the most. It has a Mincho font you can download inside the app for extra legibility, and when you press and hold on a word, you can send the word to DroidWing to look it up! VERY handy.

If you’re learning Japanese, chances are, you’re also struggling with a way to remember everything. I hope you’re using an SRS. My favorite SRS is Anki, and there’s a port of Anki for Android, called Ankidroid.

When you’re in Japan, post offices are really useful places for doing 2 things: sending crap home, and getting money for cheap. Finding them, on the other hand, can be tricky. This app claims to do it. (Requires a connection.):

This last app is just cool: the Hyperdia search app– you can use the Hyperdia service to search for ways to get from A駅 to B駅 (A Station to B Station) all over Japan. Of course, these days, that might not work exactly as you think. Also, this requires an online connection to work: